Lansing wrestling boasts young talent

The Lansing wrestling team has developed many successful athletes over the years, the biggest name of them all being Kyle Dake. This season, the Bobcats have shown promising signs that there are more standout wrestlers to come out of the program.

The story of the season for Lansing has been its youth. Nine of the 13 wrestlers on the team are underclassmen, six of which are only freshmen. For coach Gene Nighman, that’s the sign of a healthy program given their lack of numbers in previous years.

“It’s been kind of nice this year in that our numbers have increased, so it’s good that the size of the team is growing,” Nighman said. “For the most part, they’re underclassmen, so that is also good, and it bodes well for future success of the team.”

Another big difference this year has been the addition of Fredy Stroker, who co-coaches the team alongside Nighman. Stroker is a very familiar name to the local wrestling scene, having wrestled at Cornell from 2017 to 2021. Not only has he been a big help in terms of recruiting students to join the team, he has also been able to help out with demonstrating moves that the 64-year-old Nighman can no longer do.

“[Fredy’s] a tremendous asset,” Nighman said. “I can’t move around on the mats like a young guy like Fredy can. I have a ton of knowledge, and I can teach to some degree and pass that along to the guys on the team. I can’t always demonstrate it the best because of my physical limitations. I just can’t move like a young guy.”

Of their multiple young stars, Owen Clark has shined the brightest so far. The freshman was the lone IAC champion for the Bobcats, taking home the 124 weight class crown after taking down Dryden’s Oscar Brotherton in a 9-2 decision. He’s also the only Bobcat to qualify for states after finishing in third place at sectionals.

It seemed inevitable that Clark would turn out to be a tremendous wrestler just by looking at his family members. His father Mitch was a national-champion wrestler at Ohio State and was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2021. His grandfather John is also a Hall of Famer after a successful 20-year coaching career at St. Lawrence. Rounding things off, his uncle John is currently the head coach at Sacred Heart University.

“I really think Owen has great exposure to good coaches,” Nighman said. “His father was an unbelievable mat wrestler on top, and Owen is very, very good on top. But I think what helps Owen is not only is he good on top, he’s quite good on his feet. I think he is maybe more well-rounded for his age than his dad was.”

The two other freshmen who have impressed this season are Aaden McMillen and Evan Sheils. The former finished runner-up at IACs at the 108 weight class and was eliminated in the quarterfinals at sectionals, while the latter finished in fourth place at sectionals.

“What they have learned this year are the differences between youth wrestling, and high school wrestling,” Nighman said. “In youth wrestling, power is not a factor. In high school wrestling, they’re wrestling older guys who have more strength, and they have to deal with that strength and they have to learn how to wrestle where strength is an important factor of success, not just moves.”

Lansing could very well have had two wrestlers participate at states this year. Owen Emmick made it to states last time out at the 138 weight class, but the senior’s season was cut short due to injury. While Emmick hasn’t been able to compete, he has been able to contribute to the Bobcats in other ways.

“He is great in motivating the young guys and getting them to warm up hard and work hard and even helping teach them things,” Nighman said. “He actually did a lot of drilling with Owen Clark… They were good drill partners. They couldn’t wrestle live with each other because of the weight differential, but [they’re] good drilling partners practicing and learning moves.”

While Clark’s campaign continues at states from February 23-24 in Albany, it’s the end of the season for the rest of the team. Looking back, the progress that all their wrestlers have shown indicates that the best is yet to come for Lansing wrestling.

“The boys who are first-year wrestlers have gone from having never wrestled before to winning high school varsity matches and placing in tournaments,” Nighman said. “They have actually improved at a tremendous pace. Wrestling is a martial art, and it takes a long time to learn. No one ever learns all of the aspects of wrestling. I watch wrestling and learn new things all the time. But they need to learn the fundamentals and build on it and learn scenarios where they have choices to do several different things and pick the right thing to do.”